


Reno and Love

by cuddlyharkness



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Falling In Love, Happy Ending, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Requited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 10:23:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5287058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlyharkness/pseuds/cuddlyharkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reno gets a bit of a wake-up call when Rude lets him know that he behaves...differently, around one Mr. Strife.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reno and Love

He wasn't sure what had started his feelings. He had no idea what had captivated him so much about his friend, what about this man had made his heart start beating faster and made his mouth feel dry. In fact, he hadn't even noticed beforehand that he acted differently around him. It was Rude who pointed it out to him in the first place.

"What are you talkin' about?" He'd questioned, his face drawn up in confusion. His eyes were narrowed as he stared his near-silent friend down that day, his hands resting on his hips as he demanded answers.

"You act different. Not like how you act around us, or even around ladies. You act... almost nervous. You try to act like normal, but... uncharacteristically reserved, I might say." Rude explained, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he stared straight ahead. Reno had learned his tactics more than once, and it bothered him that Rude didn't face him when he spoke about this. He wasn't sure if the man was looking at him out of the corner of his eye or not, but he could definitely feel something that was making his face turn a muted shade of pink.

"I don't know what you mean..." Reno responded, brushing off the heavy feeling on his shoulders as he witnessed Rude turn his head. No mistaking it now, the other man was in fact staring at him.

"Shall I give you examples?" Rude muttered, uncrossing his arms as he waved for the redhead to follow him. Walking away from the door of the bar, where moments before they had exited and decided that, against Tifa's policy, they would linger around. Reno followed, taking two steps for every one of his friend's. "Think about how you behaved when it was just you, Tifa, and myself in the room."

Reno did think. He thought about how light and almost boring the air in the bar had been. He realized that his words flowed out stiffly around the woman, and how Rude's presence counteracted that. He overall talked as if he were unwillingly present at a social event, yet still having a fairly good time regardless. He hadn't noticed it himself before.

"I talk like I always do." Reno muttered, watching as Rude came to stop a bit away from the bar. "Just like I do at parties, rather.." He corrected. Rude nodded at that, fixing the cuff of his suit.

"Exactly. Now, take how you responded when Strife walks into the room. Your entire demeanor changed in about two seconds. Enough time for you to register who it was, and immediately lean over. You made yourself look smaller, weaker... But not quite intimidated." The taller man stated, his voice steady as he explained his friend's sudden change.

Now that he was called out, he took in consideration exactly what had happened. He'd witnessed Cloud walk into the bar, true. He had taken about a second to register it was him, check. But his demeanor had changed that much? He'd made himself small? He didn't understand. He wasn't scared of Cloud, hell no, although there were a lot of reasons to be. He wasn't intimidated, not at all. Cloud just didn't have that kind of weight to his personality. He purposefully made himself nonthreatening in home situations, and the fact that Tifa's bar had become his home made it so. 

So then, what the hell had caused him to act that way?

"Okay, I get what you're sayin'. I just don't know why..." Reno mumbled, looking at his companion in his own confused daze. Rude nodded. 

"That's what I want to figure out. I've never seen you act that way around anyone else, not even back in the day when you were awful at controlling your body language..." The two men stood in silence for a moment, each looking off in a different direction as they thought for a minute. It wasn't until Reno noticed a small smirk tugging at Rude's lips that his eyes went wide.

"Oh no! Oh Hell no! Rude! No!" Reno cried, glaring at the other with narrowed eyes. Rude just shook his head as he smirked.

"Well, never thought I'd see the day..." Rude commented, crossing his arms as Reno's hands reached up to tangle in his hair. His eyes were wide as he reached the same realization himself.

"I'm... oh my god. Rude, tell me I'm not. Please? Please, man. Tell me I'm not..." Reno was freaking out. This was not what he was supposed to do. Reno, the infamous redheaded Turk, was NOT supposed to fall for people. They were supposed to fall for him, that's how the universe was meant to be and that's how it was meant to stay. But yet... suddenly a lot made sense. 

"I hate to say it, but... I'm afraid you may be in love, Reno."

* * *

Love. Love wasn't something he really understood. It was a lost cause to him, something he never really put much thought into since he was younger. It was just not real. He'd thought that it was just a false thing that committed people talked about to give themselves something to hold their relationship together. He hadn't ever believed any of the hype about it, never believed he would ever feel it. In fact, the thought that he might be feeling it now was actually panic inducing.

It was later now, nighttime in the depths of Midgar. He'd said he'd catch up with Rude later, whenever he felt like he could handle work again. Rude had nodded silently, leaving without another word and letting Reno fall into his thoughts. He'd climbed to one of the solid metal plates on the towers being rebuilt throughout Midgar, and he'd set to thinking. That was a few hours ago, and he still hadn't moved from loitering on the metal structure.

The town was much darker these days at night, smog still blocked out the starlight and the moon. It was eerie and gloomy, at best. Just the way most of the people there thought. But right now, his shoulders still felt heavy. He couldn't be bothered by the way this town, this ruins of a city, was set up. He had his own problems to solve.

Sighing, he became lost in his thoughts. The city lights were flickering out slowly, just like each small fragment of his hesitation. Why was this so difficult? He'd never felt scared of anything. He didn't even know if this was fear. Was this how other people felt the first time they thought they felt love? Did the fear just go hand in hand? Was it normal? Too many questions poked at his mind and, as a result, his patience. 

Finally, he cracked under the pressure and got down from his high place. He wanted to get this over with, get a straight answer from that golden haired man he'd become so smitten with. He only hoped that his bluntness would be appreciated by the rather distant male.

* * *

Cloud was at the bar. He'd stayed downstairs as Tifa had gone to check on Marlene and Denzel, and soon after to bed. He appreciated the silence that came when the bar was empty, how the smell of booze and cigarette smoke would slowly fade out and be replaced by the stuffy stiff smell that came with living in Midgar. It was familiar, it was as much home as anything else could be. 

It was during nights like these that he allowed himself to think clearly, to think without interruption or others stomping in to intrude on him. Silently, he scribbled on a napkin the thoughts he was dealing with. One at a time, he filled up those scraps and threw them away. It was a slow, methodical action he'd picked up years ago when he'd first been seeing ghosts. It helped relieve his fears, his worries, his stress...

He didn't even look up when someone walked in. People knew Seventh Heaven was closed, so the only people who dared to enter at a time like this were friends. He assumed as much when a form slid into the seat opposite him in the booth. 

His hand scribbled at the napkin in front of him, the scratching of his pen the only sound for the longest time. He didn't look up when he heard the other person gently tap his fingers on the table.

"What do you want." It wasn't a question. It was more of prompt for whomever it was to come out and state what they wanted at an hour this late. It wasn't until a very scrawny, although strong hand reached over and moved hair out of his face that he looked up. His eyes narrowed when he saw the man in front of him was Reno.

The Turk said nothing at first, simply entranced by the golden lock he'd tucked behind the other man's ear. Finally, the dull blue gaze he was given served to spur him into speaking.

"I wanted to uh... t'talk to you a bit...." Reno muttered, looking down at the table in front of him as he folded his hands in his lap. Cloud noticed the man was chewing on his bottom lip, apparently nervous about something. It then occurred to him that this was one of the rare times he saw the redhead without his burly friend in the same place.

"What of?" The blond grumbled, sitting his pen down and tossing his last series of scribbles in the trash. Reno watched him quietly, wondering for a moment what the man had been so focused on writing. It occurred to him then that he was trying to distract himself from the situation he'd created.

"Well uh... Fuck it." Reno swore, shaking his head as he reached across the table and took Cloud's calloused hand. The redhead's eyes were filled with a mix of emotions Cloud hadn't even known Reno had, and for a moment it scared him. It caught him off guard. Reno was the easy-going, annoying Turk. He'd always been that way, based on all the firsthand accounts he'd heard over the years. But this was... Different. He was acting strange, and for some reason it was worrying.

"Reno, you okay..?" Cloud questioned quietly, watching as the other man just smiled and shook his head.

"Not at all. I'm confused, I'm scared, and I've got no idea what the fuck I'm doin'." Cloud opened his mouth to respond, but was silenced by Reno squeezing his hand gently. "Strife, it's come to my attention that I act... different, around you..."

Cloud nodded quietly, recounting how this Turk practically switched personalities whenever he talked to him. This was no exception.

"I think... I know no why I do. And I wanted to tell you, and I'll take however you respond at face value." The redhead explained. "Hell, Cloud. I know this is weird and I know you don't know what the fuck is wrong with me, but I need to just get it out in the open. Cloud Strife, I think I might be in love with you." This silenced Cloud entirely. His eyes went wide, almost bulging out of his head as he stared at the Turk. "I don't know how, or why... I don't even know if this is or isn't what love feels like. I've only ever felt lust before, that passing urge to just fuck someone and get it over with. Never anything deeper, and until now I didn't believe there was anything more to relationships." 

"Reno..." Cloud muttered, shaking his head as he turned his hand over and quietly stared at the other man's palm. He was clammy, his hands were actually shaking. The redhead's voice may have been steady, but he was terrible at calming his body language. Reno's nerves were shot, by this point. A faint, almost unseen smile crossed the blond's face as he closed his eyes. The faint chuckling that came from him only served to worry Reno further. 

"What's funny...?" Cloud looked up at the redhead quietly.

"You. You walk into our bar at two in the morning and decide to profess your love or whatever, and I just find it funny..." The blond explained, standing from his seat and pulling Reno with him. "Come with me..." 

Reno didn't protest, very aware that Cloud's hand was a warm weight in his own. He was lead to the door, where Cloud flipped the lock to ensure that no one else would disturb their evening. Quietly, the blond looked at Reno with calm, calculating eyes.

"If you really think it might be love, then show me exactly what you're feeling. Kiss me, and let me be the judge of your truth. If you feel anything there, we'll talk. If you just get horny, we'll call it lust and get it done so you can get it out of your system." Cloud was blunt. Reno quite appreciated that. The blond wasn't into games, he hated being toyed with. In a sense, he was very much like himself.

"Okay, that sounds like a fair plan to me..." Reno muttered, his eyes bright with hope as he moved to close the distance between them. Cloud reached his hands up and placed them on the side of the Turk's face, gently pulling him down to press their lips together. Eyes fluttered shut as they started small, a soft movement of lips against one another until Reno could feel the soft warmth of Cloud's tongue slide along his bottom lip. The quiet request was answered by Reno's hands coming to rest on Cloud's hips, his lips parting slightly for the blond to freely explore as he wished. 

The warmth of the blond's tongue was a welcome invasion. It ran over his tongue, exploring the wet cavern until he was content. Reno's own tongue began to dance with his, and vaguely both men felt a small crackle on their skin as the two muscles clashed together. The Turk's hands drew Cloud closer, holding him firmly in place as the blond's arms wrapped around his neck. 

Finally, they parted for air. Soft gasps escaped both men as they pressed their foreheads together, their eyes closed for the longest moment. It wasn't until Cloud removed an arm from around Reno's neck to pull at his tie absentmindedly that Reno finally let his eyes slide open. Quietly, he watched the beauty in his arms play with the fairly cheap fabric. Rough fingers slid across the stitching, his eyes half lidded as he seemed to be lost in thought. Slowly, Reno's lips twitched into a smile. 

Even if he couldn't have Cloud, even if this turned out to be nothing more than some sort of simple infatuation, he'd never forget that image. The image of a beautiful, blond man who spent far too much time feeling sorry for himself finally letting go of his heavy heart for just a little while. He'd never forget the soft feeling of gentle, pink lips against his own, or the childish sparkle that twinkled in those half-lidded eyes immediately after their kiss. He drunk in the moment, and finally he realized what everyone saw in Cloud. 

Cloud was so painfully unaware of how perfect he was. He was tormented and ruined time and time again. He'd gone through so much shit he didn't deserve, been thrown to the wind by Fate's cruel ways. But all the while, he was somehow still beautiful. He was a child of Hope, a beautiful ray of sunshine to everyone but himself. He didn't know his own worth, demoting himself below the most undeserving of soldiers and people. He was a son of Kindness, kin to Beauty and could very easily rival any god or summon from their small world. He was beauty, he was perfect, and he deserved so much more than he knew. It finally made sense why everyone fussed over him. He deserved better, he deserved the world and then some.

And Reno wanted to give him everything he should have had from day one.

"I think... it is actually more than lust." Reno finally stated, watching as the blond looked up to him with a gentle smile. He nodded quietly, watching the redhead for any sign he might be lying. Finding none, he let out a gentle sigh and pecked Reno's cheek.

"Good... Then that means we can give this a shot." At that, the redhead's face lit up like Christmas. His eyes were wide and sparkly, and his mouth was twisted up in what could be called the goofiest smile Cloud had ever laid eyes on. "Now run along, go back to your little Turk friends.. I'm sure they're wondering where you are by now. I don't want any others tracking dirt into the bar." Reno chuckled quietly and nodded, gently running a hand through Cloud's hair.

"I'll see you, then...?" The Turk asked, his voice as shaky as his hands. At the warm, faint smile he received, he found he was able to breathe much easier. No reason to panic, the blond did actually want to see him more often. That made his stomach feel like doing flips. As Cloud waved from the door of the bar as his new partner walked away into the night, he silently thanked the will of the gods to have given him such a lucky moment.


End file.
